PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Cancer: Diagnosis (23 January 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of patients who received an urgent GP referral for a suspected cancer in the last six months have (a) been diagnosed with cancer and (b) received confirmation that cancer has not been detected within 28 days of their referral.

Asked by:
Karin Smyth (Labour)

The following table shows the amount of people that were either informed that they had cancer, or received an all clear, in the past six months for which data is available, namely between June and November 2023, and the proportions of people that were told this within 28 days from an urgent referral:

Pathway End Reason	Total told	Told within 28 days	Percentage told outcome within 28 days
Diagnosis of cancer	91,369	46,841	51.3%
Ruling out of cancer	1,379,738	1,006,233	72.9%

Source: NHS England

Answered by:
Andrew Stephenson (Conservative)
21 February 2024